


Double Entendre

by Glittering_Goldie



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, Yuma is actually doing his homework (miracle), cute Astral, keyshipping - Freeform, no barians, pre-Vector
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:52:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2368199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glittering_Goldie/pseuds/Glittering_Goldie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Yuma has taken a liking to puns recently, much to Astral's confusion. Cue Yuma trying to explain puns and Astral not really getting it - things spiral from there"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double Entendre

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ketzl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ketzl/gifts).



> I truly liked your prompt: it was challenging for a non-English speaker to come up with nice puns and I had fun. Fluff took over at some point, couldn't help it. I apologize for that but hope you will enjoy the story!

“Curse you, algebra!” a very frustrated young man was pointlessly trying to scribble abstruse symbols on his paper. However, despite all his attempts, the only thing that Yuma had managed to write correctly so far was the text of the exercise. The rest of the once white paper was covered in black scrawls and blotted attempts of numbers and formulas. Math had never been the kid’s forte.

“My name’s not algebra” the evanescent shape of the emperor’s key’s tenant floated beside the student, a curious look on his face, as always, but a glimpse of astonishment as well. He had been listening to Yuma’s mutterings for more than an hour by now and honestly couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the boy’s assignments. Well, actually what was more wrong than usual, since Yuma and school had never been famous for getting along too well. By the way, he really didn’t know why the kid would curse him, Astral had done nothing wrong this time, simply being silent and quiet into his key, minding his own business and not meddling into the boy’s homework at all. And why did Yuma pointed him as _algebra_? Who was algebra to begin with?

“I didn’t curse _you_ , Astral” the young man sighed, “I know your name’s not algebra, I’m not so dense” seriously, how could the spirit even come up with such misunderstandings? “I was referring to the evilest evil that ever crossed the earth’s soil; algebra!” he basically shouted, lifting his hands up in the hair theatrically.

Astral arched an eyebrow, even more puzzled than before. “Is algebra a Barian?”.

If he had been in the mood to, Yuma would have slapped the alien’s head out of frustration. Instead he laughed, closing the boring book with a loud splat sound and moving it as far from his sight as he could.

“No, you alien-head; it’s a school subject. You really don’t know anything, do you?”.

This time Astral looked a bit offended by the kid’s statement. “I don’t know most of the things in _your_ world, and it’s not my fault!” he pouted crossing his arms over his chest. “But why were you cursing algebra in the first place?”. Yuma gave him a half-apologetic look and drifted his attention back to the book again, glaring at it as if it was some sort of menace to the humankind.

“Because it’s crazy. I wish it would stop asking us to find its damn x. It's never coming back, resign yourself and move on”.

Wait, what? “Are… algebra and x in some sort of… relationship?”.

“Yeah, why not…” Yuma rolled his eyes. Then he jumped off his seat to land in the middle of the room and struck a dramatic pose, pointing his finger to the floating alien.

“Astral, my ol’ friend; I think the time has come for you to learn what a pun is” he didn’t pay attention to the other’s confused look, “ I, Tsukumo Yuma, will teach you everything you need to know!” he stated bumping his fist to his chest and almost choking in doing so. Astral muffled a chuckle.

“Some teacher I have…” he teased.

“How dare you? I’m the best teacher you could ever stumble upon, trust me!”

“I would know…” Astral rolled his eyes in a mocking tone.

Yuma held his irritation and rather showed a serious expression. “And since I am such good teacher I won’t even punish you for your disrespectful words, and rather tell you that you are making progress; sarcasm is the first step to any good pun” he pointed out.

“I see…” now Astral was getting interested though, he wished he had a notebook sometimes so that he could take notes about humans and never forget them, but that wasn’t the case and he could only pay attention to the kid’s words, as always.

Yuma collapsed on the ground with his legs crossed, his hands on his knees and a solemn look on his face, Astral mimicked his movements and sat in front of his ‘teacher’, eager to learn.

“So,” Yuma begun “Why can’t you trust a dreamer?” he asked.

The alien was really taken back by Yuma’s words. For real? You can’t trust dreamers? He had better to remember that in the future, that was valuable information. He didn’t thank Yuma because he didn’t want to interrupt their ‘lesson’ but he really couldn’t come up with a satisfying answer.

“Because they are sleeping?” he tried. Yuma just shook his head dramatically.

“Because they don’t know reality?” Astral tried again, he couldn’t disappoint his teacher; he would come up with the right answer. Again though, Yuma shook his head.

“Because they aren’t trustful, because they are Barians, because they are evil, because they can’t play duel monsters!” nothing again, the only answer he got from the boy was a shake of his head and Astral was now running out of reasons why you can’t trust dreamers. He would never understand humans, he would never learn how to use that information about dreamers correctly, why couldn’t he find the answer?

“You are thinking too much” finally, Yuma murmured some words, his eyes still closed.

“I am sorry sensei” Astral mumbled apologetically.

“You are some hard disciple” the kid muttered leaning his head on his chest and crossing his arms over his torso, staring sternly at the glowing figure in front of him, which frustrated expression was really priceless. But Yuma couldn’t laugh yet. Instead he repeated his words again, just as if he was questioning a real student “Why can’t you trust dreamers?”.

“I… I don’t know” Astral lowered his gaze to the ground, ashamed and disappointed by his inability to find the right answer; why were humans and their behavior so hard to understand?

“Because they often lie!” this time Yuma burst out laughing.

Astral’s face was a mix of bewilderment and frustration; they lied? Why did they do that? Did they lie when it came to tell their dreams to other people maybe?

“I still don’t understand… why are they supposed to tell more lies than awake people?” he finally asked.

Yuma tried to recompose himself, muffling some chuckle here and there and focusing on the poor Astral. He was so naïve at times that he couldn’t resist to tease the alien; he clearly still didn’t get what a pun was.

“It was a pun, Astral; lie and lie sound the same but the first word means to be untruth, the second means to lie down in a position while asleep. A joke, a double entendre, do you understand?”

“I…” wait, let’s repeat the phrase all over again; dreamers lie because they lie, so they were untruth because they slept. Correct? No, that didn’t make sense. So they lied because they weren’t untruth or they slept because they wanted to tell lies and so they couldn’t? This was too much!

“I don’t get this! What’s the point with telling lies if they are asleep?” he finally asked out of frustration.

“They don’t! This is the point!” why did Astral always take everything so seriously?

“This is absurd. Why would humans say such things?” the alien was more and more puzzled.

“Because it’s fun, everybody likes jokes, if you tell them in the right way of course. I can’t understand how you can’t get it. You’re so dense that I could smack a brick on your head and that rounded glowing thing of yours would break it in half” he huffed.

“Why would you do that? I could get hurt. And where would you find a brick to begin with? What is a brick?”.

Yuma slapped his hand on his crazy haired head. “It was an example! Another pun, man, Astral, at least try”.

“I am!” the alien replied “But I can’t figure out how all this pun making will help me regaining my memories” he retorted crossing his arms over his chest and looking away from the young kid.

“You’ve been the one to ask” Yuma countered.

“But I didn’t know what a pun was. And it isn’t going to help me understanding my past and finding more about my aim in your world. A pun won’t tell me who I am!” anything Astral couldn’t understand or properly ‘observe’ would be labeled as useless, he was quite too proud for his own good.

“Try to focus on the future for once, or on the present; it’s not always about your memories and you, ya know?” why couldn’t he understand that? The world didn’t revolve around him, other people had their own aims too and it was nice to take a break from all the fighting and aliens thing from time to time.

“I can’t focus on the future if I can’t find out things about my past”. Still stubborn like a mule. But when he worn that pouting expression Yuma had to admit that the alien was... too cute; he did that on purpose, the boy was sure, Astral just knew that Yuma couldn’t resist a good pout.

“Well… this is some sort of _tense_ conversation…” Yuma eventually mumbled, muffling a laugh, but Astral noticed it nonetheless. “What now?” the alien asked “Why are you laughing?”.

“The right question is why aren’t _you_ laughing” the kid retorted again.

“I was supposed to…?” .

And now Astral was giving him the innocent look. That was really low of him! Yuma gave one long frustrated sigh… “Yes, you were. It was another pun; you know, tense and tense, the noun and the adjective… they are the same word but with different meanings, just as lie and lie”.

Astral looked lost in thoughts for the umpteenth time that day, his hand under his chin and his stare lost in emptiness. The red eyed boy was almost going to rejoice internally; maybe he had made it, maybe that cute, pigheaded, glimmering alien had finally understood. He waited impatiently for the other to come up with his answer, statement, word, whatever.

“…” few silent seconds passed before Astral finally drifted his gaze back to the young student.

 “I still don’t get it”.

Yuma collapsed to the ground with a groaning sound, his eyes facing the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing in existence; what did he do so bad in his life to deserve all this? Okay, he wasn’t good at school and he still struggled with duels, but he helped his grandma, was kind with his friends, respected his cards… yet the floating alien was such a rock head…

“You lack of imagination, Astral” he grumbled to the spirit. The alien lowered himself to the floor as well, resting his face on his knees and looking at the boy with an apologetic expression. Maybe he had pushed it too far this time…

“You still like me?” he asked slightly concerned.

Yuma sighed deeply, an half smile slowly surfacing on his mouth, he rose till he was mimicking the other’s pose and lovingly leant a hand on his transparent back, placing a quick light kiss on the alien’s evanescent lips.

“Only at times” he teased.

“What times?” Astral chuckled.

“The times I don’t dislike you”. The alien looked puzzled for a moment. “Was this another pun?” he asked, in fear of having missed even this one. But Yuma shook his head slightly.

“Not quite”. Relieved by the kid’s answer, Astral leant his head on the other’s shoulder, half closing his white and yellow eyes.

“Next time” Yuma went on “I’ll teach you what an innuendo is” he resisted the impulse to chuckle; Astral hadn’t understood what a pun was and most likely wasn’t going to get an innuendo either, but maybe the kid could use some tricks so to make the alien understand…

“Sounds like fun” Astral obliviously mumbled.

Yuma sternly nodded “You bet it”. And the alien didn’t even notice that they had made one last pun.

**_Owari_ **


End file.
